At least three rockets targeted the US embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Sunday, Iraqi security officials said, sparking fears of renewed unrest, as next month’s anniversary of the slaying of an Iranian general draws near.
Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the US over its atomic program, satellite photos obtained Friday by The Associated Press show.
The Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan on Saturday stressed the need to urge Israel to return to negotiations in order to reach a final settlement on the basis of a two-state solution to ensure the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines, with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Authorities in several European countries banned flights from Britain on Sunday amid mounting fears over an infectious new strain of COVID-19.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Russia for one of the largest cyberattacks on American government agencies and private companies in recent memory. Russia has denied involvement in the scandal.
A monitoring group reported Tuesday that, while there remains work to be done, Saudi Arabia has significantly reduced anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist content in its school books for the coming year, the Times of Israel reports. The Jerusalem-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) published its report amid speculation that Saudi Arabia, a long-time enemy of Israel, may follow Bahrain, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates in normalizing relations with the Jewish State.
Israel will be the first country to give its citizens a “green passport” — a card or mobile phone app that will allow them to enter public spaces like restaurants, shopping centers, and airplanes – once they have received the COVID-19 vaccination, All Israel News reports.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Monday that archaeologists working in the Judean Hills city of Beit Shemesh have unearthed a lost cistern containing hundreds of ceramic oil lamps that are 1,600-1,700 years old, the Times of Israel reports.
Israel’s head of missile defense said Tuesday that he would consider working with Arab Gulf states on mutually beneficial missile defense programs, World Israel News reports.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appeared in public, countering unconfirmed publicized claims that his health had significantly deteriorated, the Times of Israel reports. At a meeting in Tehran Wednesday, Khamenei addressed the family of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US drone strike this year, and senior Iranian military leaders.
US officials suspect a massive hacking operation that hit numerous government agencies and has been linked to Russia breached networks tied to the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile, Politico reported Thursday.
In another decision that favors churches, the US Supreme Court on Tuesday sent two cases back to the federal courts which had refused to block COVID-19 restrictions on houses of worship, the Daily Wire reports. The Supreme Court instructed the lower courts in the two cases to re-consider their original decisions as, in a pivotal ruling last month, SCOTUS ruled against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attendance limits on houses of worship.
Yisrael Beiteinu leader MK Avigdor Lieberman called on fellow opposition lawmakers to join forces and challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox allies in the upcoming elections.
The Israel Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency for the first time demonstrated a multilayered air defense system using the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow weapon systems in a recent series of tests.
Israel has successfully completed an air defense exercise that tested the abilities of the Iron Dome missile defense system to intercept cruise missiles for the first time, the Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday.
The US is making a mistake by leaving the Middle East to its own devices and this could lead to a conflagration between Israel and Iran, wrote former Turkish MP Aykan Erdemir and former US Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman in an article for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday that Sudan has been officially removed from a list of countries that the US considers being state sponsors of terrorism, the Jerusalem Post reports. The 1993 US designation of Sudan as a terror sponsor was made during the brutal dictatorship of former president Omar al-Bashir, who was believed to be protecting terrorist groups, and who was finally ousted last year.
Hamas vowed on Monday to continue the fight against Israel “until the liberation of Palestine, from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River.”
Oman and Indonesia could be next in line to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in the coming weeks, a diplomatic source said Sunday.
Israel established full diplomatic relations with Bhutan for the first time on Saturday night.